Archive for the ‘jacob degrom’ tag

Hi there. Its time to write about the “silly season” of baseball, now that they’ve announced the finalists for each of the major awards.

This year, I changed the way I have traditionally written this post and did not bother to check the pulse of the awards (or look at Players of the Month) until season’s end, since they’re generally useless for predicting these major awards. So no running narrative of who was “in the lead” for the MVP at the all-star break.

Here’s my predictions for how the awards will go. Important note: This is not necessarily how I believe the awards should go, it is how I think the current electorate will vote … though I do tend to believe that the MVP award in particular is not just about naming the WAR leader in the league.

The writers have to submit their ballots at the end of the season; I finished this post in early October but waited until the awards season to arrive to publish it. Thus, it contains no inclusion of any post-season accolades or accomplishments since the votes were already in before the playoffs started. Therefore, I’ve left in my gross errors once the 3 finalists were announced.

Comeback Players of the Year: goes to Greg Holland and Mike Moustakas. I thought Ryan Zimmerman would be a lock for this … but Holland makes a lot of sense too.

BA Executive of the Year: Brian Cashman of the Yankees …who then went through a bit of a charade with the team on whether he was coming back. This may have been more of an award for his amazing work LAST year, when he flipped players at the deadline for a ton of prospects, got one of the back in FA (Aroldis Chapman) and then suddenly made the playoffs one year after selling.

J.G. Taylor Spink Reporter of the year: Sheldon Ocker, who covered the Indians for more than 30 years before retiring in 2013. Um … how is a *retired* sports writer getting this award? Why am I tracking it here with player awards?

AL MVP : I’ve got Altuve over Judge in a race that shouldn’t be that close. Altuve was dominant all year, holds a sizeable advantage in bWAR (more than a win) over any other AL hitter and is the heart of the best team in the league. Judge would be the winner had he had a 2nd half similar to his 1st half, and was the clear winner of the “Narrative” conversation. However, Altuve’s defensive additions and Judge’s distinct lack of “clutchness” (he was dead last or close to it in terms of clutch hitting). Judge just loses out at doing what just a couple of players have ever done; win the RoY and MVP in the seam season (Fred Lynn, . Outside the top two, I think it could be any one of a slew of guys. I think Trout‘s injury costs him in the race but he still is named on a bunch of ballots, but not enough to overcome Betts (who gets votes as Boston’s best player). I think Jose Ramierez should be in the discussion as Cleveland’s best hitter, but he toils in anonymity for the most part and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sale/Kluber slide into 5th. Also, don’t sleep on Andrelton Simmons, who has become a force on both sides of the ball this year. With the finalists announced; I did get the top 3 correct at least and feel like i’ve got the right order.

NL MVP: I think Stanton‘s monstrous season (he has nearly 30 more homers than the next best NL hitter) puts him over the top in a year when the best NL teams (Washington, Los Angeles in particular) do not have dominant offensive players leading the way and making their case. Washington’s best WAR position player is Rendon, who wasn’t even named an All-Star, and the Dodger’s best position player by bWAR is Justin Turner, who isn’t exactly mentioned in the MVP talks. I think the 2nd and 3rd place votes go to the clear leaders of the two surprise wild card teams (Arenado and Goldschmidt), then 4th and 5th go to Rendon and Kris Bryant in some order. Bryant has been amazingly quiet despite continuing to be a top player and being the defending MVP; perhaps its Cubs fatigue after their amazing win last fall. Joey Votto fails to get mentioned despite his amazing season toiling for the last place Reds. With the finalists announced; I was shocked that the voters gave Votto the votes to get into the top 3; again, more evidence of the electorate getting “smarter” and appreciating the best performances. I still think it goes Stanton 1st, Goldschmidt 2nd, Votto 3rd.

AL Cy Young: Despite Sale‘s 300 strikeout season, Kluber leads the league in most every pitching statistical category and should win this award. Sale got blasted in one of his last starts of the season, possibly changing some voter’s impression of him at the death of the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if the voting is really close though. Past the top two it could be anyone: Verlander stayed in the same league and caught on fire upon his trade to Houston, Luis Severino will get the attention of the many NE-focused voters. I have no idea who might come in 5th; Carrasco has been great, but it could also be some random closer. With the finalists announced; I did get the top 3 right at least but feel like its going to be really, really close between Sale/Kluber.

NL Cy Young: Both the leading candidates missed time due to injury, but Scherzer only missed a couple of starts and has sizeable lead on Kershaw in both bWAR and in total Ks. I could see either guy eventually winning though; you can make arguments for either. Kershaw will have many more innings than he has last year, when he still managed to come in 5th in the vote, and he’ll have a significant lead in ERA. Past these two, there’s a slew of good hurlers who deserve recognition. Strasburg has put his name firmly in the argument with his scoreless inning streak, and ironically as of mid-September neither Stras or Scherzer was the bWAR pitching leader on his own *team* (Gio Gonzalez was). Former Nat Farmhand Robbie Ray has had a great season, as has Greinke, as has Alex Wood and his gaudy W/L record. 3/4/5 could go a number of ways. And don’t forget Kenley Jansen, who gave up about as many earned runs this year as he did unintentional walks. Some even mention Jacob deGrom as a back of the ballot guy, but I think there’s enough voters impressed by Jansen’s season that he’ll make it in there. With the finalists announced; I got the top 3 right and think i’ve got the right order too.

AL Rookie: No surprise here; if Judge doesn’t win unanimously then someone needs their vote revoked. More interesting will be predicting the 2nd and 3rd place guys. Did Benintendi (the pre-season favorite) do enough? Did Gurriel and his Rookie of the Month award lift him? Are there any pitchers worth mentioning? Keith Law mentioned Oakland’s Matt Olsen as a good 3rd place player but he didn’t play nearly as much as these others. Rafael Devers? Who knows. With the finalists announced; I missed on Mancini versus Gurriel, but again that’s your 3rd place winner in this one-horse race.

NL Rookie: As with Judge, this should be unanimous as well, with Bellinger setting a rookie HR record for the Dodgers (who are easily the most illustrious of teams when it comes to rookie history). Does pre-season RoY favorite Dansby Swanson even get mentioned on ballots after his struggle of a 2017 season? Who comes in third in the NL? With the finalists announced; I missed on Bell versus Freeman but either way they’re playing for 2nd place.

AL Manager: The Twins went from 100 losses to the playoffs; I think Molitor wins this narrative-driven award thanks to this feat. Franconia might get it b/c of Cleveland’s amazing winning streak. With the finalists announced; Missed on Hinch versus Girardi, but does not change my prediction.

NL Manager: I can’t see how Baker does NOT win this award,given the ridiculous injury issues he worked around and the whole-sale bullpen change at mid-season. With the finalists announced; Baker does not even make the top 3. I guess my homer-ism missed out here. I got just one of the 3 finalists right, with the voters picking Dave Roberts and Bud Black instead of Baker and Counsell. Re-guessing now that I see the finalists I think Bud Black is the new favorite, with Arizona’s Lovullo 2nd and Roberts third.

Lester: the best pitcher on the best rotation heading into 2017. photo via Grantland

Even though there’s still about 20 “starting pitchers” still on the FA market, none of them really project as anything more than a 5th starter competition or a MLFA signing at this point in the off-season, so I thought it was high time to break out my 2017 Rotation Rankings. (Here’s a link to last year’s rankings)

This is not a ranking of 2017 projected performance, nor a WAR ranking from last year, nor anything statistical in nature. This is me looking at individual players and gauging the overall “strength” of the rotation, with subjective rankings then applied. This is also a lot of me asking, “Who would I rather have as a fan?” type questions; would your rather have Chicago’s 1-2-3 or New Yorks? This starts with the identification of the roughly 20 or so best pitchers in the league right now, calling them “Aces,” then looking at those who are just a notch below an Ace, and going on down in order to think about the overall strength of a rotation. There’s plenty to argue about; for example I absolutely classify Stephen Strasburg as an “Ace” in this analysis; his performance over the last 5-6 years by nearly any measure statistically easily ranks him in the top 10-15 arms in the league even if he’s never sniffed a Cy Young award thanks to his injuries. But injuries factor in: I no longer classify Matt Harvey as an Ace thanks to his 2016 season. Feel free to dispute/argue about individual opinions/rankings in the comments.

Here’s my master rankings table just showing the projected rotations. In this Google Docs link i’ve got my full working file, color coded for Aces/#2s/#3s as well as 6th starter/long man depth identified plus some minor league depth. Also identified are 2017 acquisitions to get a sense of the rotation turnover. If you can read the Google XLS it may be easier than reading the table below.

Team

Rotation Rank

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Chicago Cubs

1

Jon Lester

Jake Arrieta

Kyle Hendricks

John Lackey

Mike Montgomery

New York Mets

2

Noah Syndergaard

Jacob deGrom

Matt Harvey

Steven Matz

Zach Wheeler

Boston

3

Chris Sale

David Price

Rick Porcello

Steven Wright

Drew Pomeranz

Los Angeles Dodgers

4

Clayton Kershaw

Rich Hill

Kenta Maeda

Julio Urias

Scott Kazmir

Washington

5

Max Scherzer

Stephen Strasburg

Tanner Roark

Joe Ross

Gio Gonzalez

Cleveland

6

Corey Kluber

Carlos Carrasco

Danny Salazar

Trevor Bauer

Josh Tomlin

Detroit

7

Justin Verlander

Michael Fulmer

Jordan Zimmermann

Anibal Sanchez

Daniel Norris

Toronto

8

Marcus Stroman

Aaron Sanchez

Marco Estrada

J.A. Happ

Francisco Liriano

St. Louis

9

Adam Wainwright

Carlos Martinez

Michael Wacha

Lance Lynn

Mike Leake

San Francisco

10

Madison Bumgarner

Johnny Cueto

Jeff Samardzija

Matt Moore

Matt Cain

Pittsburgh

11

Gerrit Cole

Jamison Taillon

Tyler Glasnow

Steven Brault

Ivan Nova

Tampa Bay

12

Chris Archer

Jake Odorizzi

Alex Cobb

Blake Snell

Matt Andriese

Arizona

13

Zack Greinke

Robbie Ray

Shelby Miller

Taijan Walker

Patrick Corbin

Texas

14

Cole Hamels

Yu Darvish

Martin Perez

Andrew Cashner

A.J. Griffen

Houston

15

Dallas Keuchel

Collin McHugh

Lance McCullers

Charlie Morton

Mike Fiers

Seattle

16

Felix Hernandez

Hisashi Iwakuma

Drew Smyly

James Paxton

Yovani Gallardo

Chicago White Sox

17

Jose Quintana

Carlos Rodon

Miguel Gonzalez

James Shields

Derek Holland

New York Yankees

18

Masahiro Tanaka

Michael Pineda

CC Sabathia

Chad Green

Luis Severino

Baltimore

19

Chris Tillman

Kevin Gausman

Dylan Bundy

Ubaldo Jimenez

Wade Miley

Philadelphia

20

Aaron Nola

Jeremy Hellickson

Jerad Eickhoff

Vincent Velasquez

Alec Asher

Atlanta

21

Julio Teheran

Bartolo Colon

Jaime Garcia

R.A. Dickey

Mike Foltynewicz

Kansas City

22

Ian Kennedy

Danny Duffy

Jason Vargas

Nate Karns

Matt Strahm

Miami

23

Wei-Yin Chen

Edinson Volquez

Dan Straily

Tom Koehler

Jeff Locke

Minnesota

24

Ervin Santana

Hector Santiago

Kyle Gibson

Phil Hughes

Jose Berrios

Oakland

25

Sonny Gray

Sean Manaea

Kendall Graveman

Andrew Triggs

Jharel Cotton

Colorado

26

Jon Grey

Chad Bettis

Tyler Anderson

Tyler Chatwood

Jeff Hoffman

Los Angeles Angels

27

Garrett Richards

Ricky Nolasco

Matt Shoemaker

Tyler Skagg

Jesse Chavez

Cincinnati

28

Homer Bailey

Anthony DeSclafani

Brandon Finnegan

Robert Stephenson

Scott Feldman

Milwaukee

29

Matt Garza

Chase Anderson

Zach Davies

Wily Peralta

Junior Guerra

San Diego

30

Luis Perdomo

Christian Frederich

Paul Clemens

Jarred Cosart

Cesar Vargas

Discussion; i’ll take the discussion in rough groups.

Top 5: I have the Chicago Cubs, NY Mets, Boston, LA Dodgers and then the Nats. Why?

Well, if Harvey was healthier i’d still have the Mets #1 as I did last year. I still think the Mets 1-2 punch of deGrom and Snydergaard is better than anyone elses. If Harvey returns to form and Matz stays healthy, the Nats may be in trouble in 2017. But those are huge what-ifs, enough to knock the Mets below Chicago for now. The Cubs for me have two Aces who just finished 2nd and 3rd in Cy Young voting while their #3 just posted a 2.13 ERA. And if their planned #5 doesn’t pan out, they have the prospect depth to make a move and acquire what they need. Despite the acquisition of Sale, I do not think Boston’s rotation is better; David Price is just too shaky for me on a week in/week out basis and Porcello, despite his Cy Young in 2016 just isn’t an “Ace.” But many have argued Boston is above both NY and Chicago; perhaps its recency bias due to the big moves of the past winter meetings.

I have the Dodgers just ahead of the Nats right now for two reasons: I think the strength of their 2-3-4 slightly trumps our 2-3-4, especially given Joe Ross‘s health question marks. And any rotation headed by Kershaw is going to be highly ranked. You can’t drop Washington much below #5 because no other rotation has the 1-2 Ace potential that the Nats do, and Roark is starting to (finally) get the recognition he deserves.

So, a lot of people highly rate Cleveland’s rotation, higher than a couple of teams in my top 5. And if Carrasco and Salazar are healthy I agree with them. But they’re not, so they get dinged a bit. I still have Verlander rated as an Ace after his comeback 2016; maybe that’s a little too high … but the rest of their rotation is all solid, being one of the only teams that I think has #3 starter quality even to the #5 starter in Daniel Norris. Toronto and St. Louis are both in the same spot; several very good arms who just fall below “Ace” category; in Toronto’s case it may be just a matter of time before we’re calling Aaron Sanchez one of the best in the league and in St.Louis’ case the same with Carlos Martinez. Some have San Francisco higher based on the fact that Bumgarner may be the 2nd or 3rd best pitcher in the game … but the back end of their rotation is so shaky they get dropped almost out of the top 10. Likewise with Pittsburgh: things get thin fast past the top 3 for the Pirates.

Ranking spots 12-16: Tampa, Arizona, Texas, Houston, Seattle.

Five teams that all could/should be higher. Tampa just stole one of the best arms in the minors in Jose De Leon and have some very talented youth in their rotation; if these guys click Tampa shoots upwards. I’m not entirely sure what to make of Arizona; they have Greinke (the lowest remaining Ace in terms of rotation rankings) and they have what should be a #2 in Shelby Miller, but what the heck happened in 2016? Meanwhile former Nat-farmhand Robbie Ray has a massive delta between WAR rating systems that its hard to figure out how good he is: B-R rated his 2016 at just 0.7 bWAR while Fangraphs called it a 3.0 fWAR season. Well which is it? Perhaps we’ll see some regression to some sort of mean for him in 2017. Both Texas and Houston have Cy Young-calibre starters at the head of their rotations with question marks: Darvish b/c of injury, Hamels because of age and Keuchel due to a bad 2016. Seattle’s rating increased over the course of the offseason with their wheeling-and-dealing GM Mark DiPoto acquiring Drew Smyly and Yovani Gallardo to improve that rotation several clicks.

The White Sox lost at least 5-6 rankings spots when they moved Chris Sale, who was by far the biggest name to move this off-season and, in fact, is the ONLY projected starter of any team ranked in my top 10. That’s pretty amazing; teams are just doing such a better job of building pitching staffs. The Yankees are precariously holding on to this spot; if their #1 Tanaka goes down with his partially torn UCL, they plummet into the bottom 3. I’ve never rated Baltimore’s rotation, but they keep making the playoffs, so maybe I just have a blind spot here. Philadelphia’s rotation could be a year or two from being in the top 6-10 range if these youngsters pan out. Atlanta maybe should be slightly lower; I like Teheran but others do not. Atlanta did by far and away the most acquisitions of any team in terms of pitching: 3 of their 5 projected opening day rotation guys are new on FA contracts, and almost all their depth is newly acquired MLFAs.

Ranking Spots #22-23: Kansas City and Miami

It just worked out this way, but both teams who had tragedy strike and take away their aces ended up ranked right next to each other. The loss of Jose Fernandez cost Miami around 9 spots, and the loss of Yordano Ventura probably cost Kansas City 5-6 ranking spots. Miami (like Atlanta) will depend on several new faces in 2017 as a result, while Kansas City may be looking at an accelerated rebuilding process.

Ranking Spots #24-26: Minnesota, Oakland, Colorado

I could see why you may think Oakland should be higher, but until their newcomers like Sean Manaea (who I always like to point out was on the board and was draftable in 2013 at the spot we gave up to sign Rafael Soriano in Mike Rizzo‘s eternal Quest for a Closer) succeed for more than a couple of months, Oakland stays ranked this low. I wouldn’t vociferously argue the order of any of these teams: they’re mostly ranked by their aces this low.

At least the Angels and Cincinnati have a couple of arms that you may briefly consider in fantasy; you can’t say that for Milwaukee or San Diego. In fact, if you told me that the “next 5” for San Diego was actually their planned rotation, I’m not sure i’d rank them any worse than the first 5. Milwaukee has instead depended on veteran players for their low ranking level, with their team ace Matt Garza making more news lately for having his Ferrari vandalized and for piping up about birth control on twitter than for his capabilities on the mound. Always a good sign for your coming season.

Scherzer may have the best shot of our 4 “finalists” for awards this week. Photo via washtimes.com

Quick break from Nats off-season stuff to talk about the “silly season” of baseball. Its awards week, with all the major BBWAA awards to be given out this week.

Here’s my predictions for how the awards will go. This is not necessarily how I believe the awards should go … once again, I think narrative wins out over Mike Trout‘s 10+ WAR season, and we may see an east coast bias in the AL rookie award. But lets see how it goes.

The writers have to submit their ballots at the end of the season; I finished this post in early October but waited until the awards season to arrive to publish it. Thus, it contains no inclusion of any post-season accolades or accomplishments since the votes were already in before the playoffs started.

My prediction results: 4 for 8. Got Seager, Franconia, Scherzer, Bryant. Missed on Fulmer, Roberts, Porcello, Trout. Historically i’ve been pretty good at these predictions; this was a very bad year for me. Which is good, because it means that the electorate is improving and that generally my over-thinking of voters picking bad results should lessen.

Note: I made some prediction mistakes based on the publication of the 3 finalist links; I’ll note those in the discussion links below.

Discussion:

AL MVP : I know some view “MVP” as “Best Player,” but it isn’t. And I’m in agreeance with the narrative that with like candidates, the playoff chase matters. Who cares that the Angels went 74-88 with 10-win Trout; Betts had nearly as valuable a season while doing a bit of everything for Boston. Betts wins, Trout gets another 2nd place finish. With the publication of the finalists, we now know that I was wrong on Donaldson for 3rd and that it will go to Altuve; i get that, since Altuve was “in the lead” for a lot of the season.

NL MVP: Bryant and it isn’t close. I think Seager gets 2nd over Murphy b/c he’s a short stop.

AL Cy Young: I like Kluber slightly over Verlander but I could see arguments on both sides. What I really hope does NOT happen is over-emphasis on Britton’s season. Yes he’s had a nice season; no he isn’t the best pitcher in the AL. I am slightly proud of myself for at least getting the top 3 right.

NL Cy Young: Kershaw’s injury has opened the door for a slew of guys: Scherzer probably has the combination of wins, IPs, Ks to be the “leader” even if he’s eclipsed in WAR by Fernandez, Snydergaard. Lester, Cueto and Hendricks also each have cases. This could be a completely wide-open race. I wrote most of this before the tragic death of Fernandez; will he now win out of sentimentality? No he won’t; with the publication of the 3 finalists we know Fernandez wasn’t in the top 3.

AL Rookie: Michael Fulmer was a shoe-in until Gary Sanchez hit 20 homers in his first 45 games; this race is closer than you might think. Fulmer really should get it, but the NY media narrative game is strong. I think Sanchez ekes it out; it was a pretty historic debut. I did get the third finalist wrong, Cleveland’s Naquin sneaks in.

NL Rookie: Seager is in the MVP discussion and should win unanimously. Trea Turner’s probably top 3, as is Seager’s japanese teammate Maeda. I am guessing Maeda pips Turner for 2nd place based on playing a full season.

AL Manager: No idea how this goes: maybe Franconia in Cleveland still? Perhaps Girardi for having the Yankees in the WC mix after their sell-off? Maybe John Ferrell for getting Boston’s act back together? Maybe Bannister in Texas for running away with a division that most thought Houston would win? I thought Girardi would sneak in over Francona; if we knew about Francona’s post-season exploits we may be giving him the award unanimously.

NL Manager: Baker in Washington still for me. Yes Maddon will get some love, but Baker’s going to improve the Nats by 13 wins; the Cubs were widely expected to get to 100 wins. Maybe Roberts in LA gets some love too. Honestly this is the award i’m least confident in guessing.

MVP : Jose Altuve now in the lead in the AL. Machado and Mike Trout in the mix. In the NL Harper has tailed off, opening the door for Clayton Kershaw and Anthony Rizzo to nose their way into the discussion. Arenado also tailed off a bit in May but still strong.Cy Young: Sale has won his first 9 starts and looks unbeatable; Zimmermann has taken a step back in the AL race. In the NL, Kershaw remains the class of the league and the likes of Arrieta and Strasburg stay close behind.

Rookie: Nomar Mazara leading the way in the AL: Twins 1B Byung Ho Park close behind. In the NL, Diaz is also an MVP candidate right now and remains in the NL ROY lead. Story’s “storybook” start keeps him close.

AL MVP : Jose Altuve has cooled slightly, leaving last year’s 1-2 finishers Trout and Donaldson in the lead again this year. But if Altuve continues to produce at these levels (with slash lines nearly identical to Trout’s) he’ll win as long as Houston stays in the playoff hunt. And once again, Trout finds himself leading the league in value-based stats while playing for a dead-last team, and once again he likely finishes 2nd to someone like Donaldson, who has a good but not as good of a season but plays for a winner. Ortiz’s monster farewell season gets him top 5 votes.

NL MVP: Harper has never regained his bat since the walk-a-thon in Chicago, and with a lack of any other candidate it seems ripe for another Kershaw double. He’s hit the D/L though, having some wonder if the likes of Kris Bryant could get the award since he’s the best player on (one of the) best teams. Matt Carpenter is quietly having a fantastic season. If the Giants (as of the halfway point owning a better record), then their leader Buster Posey will get votes.

AL Cy Young: Sale has started the season 14-2 and Cleveland’s entire rotation (led by Danny Salazar) sits among various league leader categories.

NL Cy Young: Kershaw remains the class of the league and needs to miss significant time to lose out. Its hard to fathom the season he’s having, with just 9 walks in 121 innings in the first half. Strasburg is the first NL starter in 100 years to start a season 12-0 and seems like the likely 2nd place finisher. But there’s a slew of NL starters with sterling numbers right now: Bumgarner and Cueto in particular. NL East beasts Snydergaard and Fernandez have been awesome as well.

AL Rookie: Nomar Mazara has tailed off and Park got demoted to AAA; the leader in the clubhouse seems like Detroit starter Michael Fulmer right now. Tyler Naquin is in the running, and Baltimore’s Hyun Soo Kim is there as well.

NL Rookie: Diaz and Story are still on the whole having great seasons but Dodger SS Corey Seager is running away with this and could hit 30 homers from the shortstop position this year. Don’t sleep on Seager’s teammmate Kenta Maeda though; he’s rebounded from a rough patch to be a solid starter.

AL Manager: probably Jeff Bannister for the turnaround in Texas. Perhaps Terry Franconia for the surprise in Cleveland.

NL Manager: likely our own Baker for having the Nats on a 96 win pace, which would beat 2015 by 13 games. But likely it goes to Bochy or Madden for leading good teams to good records.

Comeback Player of the year: I have nothing narrative-driven for either league. Maybe Stephen Wright in the AL and maybe Anthony Rendon in the NL?

Mid August check in:

AL MVP : I think it goes Altuve-Trout-Donaldson at this point. Betts and Machado fill out the top 5.

NL MVP: With Kershaw’s injury, I think its Kris Bryant’s to lose. Daniel Murphy gets some top 5 votes, as does Buster Posey and Nolan Arenado.

AL Cy Young: Hamels and Quintana seem like the obvious choices, even if Fulmer is leading the league in bWAR.

NL Cy Young: Kershaw’s injury has opened the door for a slew of guys: Bumgarner, Scherzer and Strasburg, deGrom and Arrieta. Who knows how it shakes out. If Strasburg finishes the season 21-3 though, it’ll be hard to vote against him.

AL Rookie: Michael Fulmer leads the AL in bWAR midway through August; he seems like a shoe-in for ROY. And he’s crushed it for my fantasy team too; that Cespedes trade isn’t looking so hot now is it?

NL Rookie: Seager sits 3rd in the NL in bWAR; he has to be the unanimous vote right now.

AL Manager: Franconia in Cleveland.

NL Manager: Baker in Washington.

Mid September check-in:

AL MVP : Its tight: Trout has now eclipsed 10 WAR on the season. Altuve has dropped out, but Betts has risen. Its going to be close, but I think it goes Betts-Trout-Donaldson with Machado and Altuve filling out the top 5. You have to think Ortiz’s monster farewell season will get some votes too.

NL MVP: This is now Bryant’s to lose. Daniel Murphy gets some top 5 votes, as does Buster Posey and Corey Seager. Anthony Rizzo also gets some MVP votes, and if the Mets somehow sneak into the playoffs so does Cespedes on narrative. Freddie Freeman getting some attention with his monster WAR season but he’ll be a 5th-place type vote getter at best.

AL Cy Young: this race is wide open. Kluber leads the league in bWAR but may not be the best pitcher on his staff. Porcello has reached 20 wins but is vastly eclipsed by Kluber in terms of Ks. Sale, Quintana in the mix, as is Verlander. Tanaka has quietly had a solid season too. Some narrative-driven writers are pushing for Zach Britton.

NL Cy Young: Kershaw’s injury has opened the door for a slew of guys: Scherzer probably has the combination of wins, IPs, Ks to be the “leader” even if he’s eclipsed in WAR by Fernandez, Snydergaard. Lester, Cueto and Hendricks also each have cases. This could be a completely wide-open race. I wrote most of this before the tragic death of Fernandez; will he now win out of sentimentality?

AL Rookie: Michael Fulmer was a shoe-in until Gary Sanchez hit 20 homers in his first 45 games; this race is closer than you might think. Fulmer really should get it, but the NY media narrative game is strong.

NL Rookie: Seager is in the MVP discussion and should win unanimously. Trea Turner’s probably top 3, as is Seager’s japanese teammate Maeda.

AL Manager: No idea how this goes: maybe Franconia in Cleveland still? Perhaps Girardi for having the Yankees in the WC mix after their sell-off? Maybe John Ferrell for getting Boston’s act back together? Maybe Bannister in Texas for running away with a division that most thought Houston would win?

NL Manager: Baker in Washington still for me. Yes Maddon will get some love, but Baker’s going to improve the Nats by 13 wins; the Cubs were widely expected to get to 100 wins. Maybe Roberts in LA gets some love too.

Hopefully his MVP vote goes better for Harper than this day did. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Everyone does an “Awards Prediction piece.” This post for me is kind of a running diary throughout the season, with the final predictions written at season’s end but then not published until after the WS ends/Awards season starts.

A few awards have already been given out, ones that I don’t necessarily try to predict anymore:

Fielding Bible Awards: not an official award but certainly a better way of evaluating defenders than the Gold Gloves (though, to be fair, they’re getting much much better at identifying the true best defenders year in, year out). No Nats awarded.

Gold Glove Finalists: announced with 3 finalists for each award; Bryce Harper and Wilson Ramos named as finalists but neither will win.

Hank Aaron awards for “Most Outstanding Offensive Player” in each league: Bryce Harper and Josh Donaldson, who not surprisingly is who I chose for my MVP predictions. I kinda wish this was a more prevalent award than the constant arguing we have about MVP.

Relievers of the Year: formerly known as the “Fireman’s reliever awards” and now named for legendary relievers Mariano Rivera/Trevor Hoffman: won this year by Andrew Miller of the Yankees, Mark Melancon of the Pirates.

A whole slew of other Sporting News annual awards: google “sporting news baseball awards 2015” and you can see players of the year, pitcher of the year, post-season all-star teams, manager of the year, etc.

I put all these dates and links plus a whole lot more into my “off-season” calendar, which will publish soon now that the season is officially over.

These are not always who I think *deserve* the awards necessarily, just how I think the voters will vote. There are some really close races. Here’s my thoughts:

NL MVP: Bryce Harper wins for three main reasons: 1) his season is one of the best of the last 50 years. 2) there’s no obvious candidate on any of the division winning teams (no sorry, Yoenis Cespedes doesn’t count) and 3) Even though the Nats didn’t win the division, they were in the race nearly the entire season. No excuses here. You might see some non-Harper votes b/c some middle aged fat slob of a homer writer has some misrepresented axe to grind but he should win easily.

NL Cy Young: Jake Arrieta: I can’t believe I’ve selected Arrieta over Greinke, but Arrieta’s 2nd half will, again, “win the narrative.” Kershaw has been unbelievable too (and my fantasy team in the championship is proof), so really you can’t go wrong with these guys in any order. I think it goes Arrietta, Greinke, Kershaw. Side note; so, is the Baltimore pitching coaching staff the most incompetent in the league or what? How does Arrieta go from being a 6ERA starter in Baltimore to a guy who is posting a sub 2.00 ERA in one of the best hitter’s parks in the league?

NL Rookie: Kris Bryant: for a while I thought this was Joc Pederson‘s to lose … but Bryant kept hitting and Pederson sat. Wow are the Astros kicking themselves for drafting Mark Appel over Bryant or what??

NL Manager: Terry Collins: There’s no team in the NL in a more surprising position than the Mets, so Collins wins the award that our own Matt Williams so richly “earned” last year. I wouldn’t be surprised though to see Joe Maddon get this given how great the Cubs were.

NL Comeback Player of the year has to be Matt Harvey; there’s nobody else really close in the NL.

AL MVP: Josh Donaldson: There’s just no reason Mike Trout shouldn’t win this award … except that voters are a fickle bunch and fall for the story. Donaldson is a good story, playing on a good story of a team in Toronto. He wins.

AL Cy Young: Dallas Keuchel: He was the best in the first half, the ASG starter, and no there’s no reason not to think he finishes off the season. In fantasy he was like a 15th round pick and he’s a top-10 producer. Amazing.

AL Rookie: Carlos Correa: If you want to argue that Francisco Lindor deserves this, I wouldn’t disagree. I’m guessing Correa has the name power with the voters though and wins out. Lindor has a much better average and is a superior defender, but Correa has 20+ homers, a benchmark number that will get him the votes.

AL Manager: Jeff Bannister: Even though Toronto is a surprise team, getting the talent handed to you like that is not the mark of a champion manager. What is going on in Texas is nothing short of amazing. At the beginning of the season the had an *entire rotation* on the D/L: Darvish, Harrison, Perez, Scheppers and Holland. Scheppers may not have stayed there very long, but they looked like a 90-loss team, not a divisional winner over the likes of LA and Houston.

AL Comeback player of the year goes to Prince Fielder for returning strongly from his neck injury. If Alex Rodriguez had missed a year due to injury instead of litigation, he would likely be the winner. By the way; how good was Alex Rodriguez doing color work for Fox Sports at the World Series? He was damn impressive to me, great analysis, well spoken, well-dressed of course … and could not have provided more contrast to Pete Rose if they had found those two guys out of central casting.

So, how did the major awards evolve over the course of the season? By my sense, the awards kind of went like this from April to September:

NL MVP: Stanton to Harper, maybe Goldschmidt, no definitely Harper, narrative Cespedes but has to be Harper. Nobody else makes sense to take it away from him on narrative.

AL Rookie: Travis/Souza early, Burns making a name, but Correa is the leader most of the season, Lindor making noise late, Correa holds on.

As with last year’s version of this post, instead of printing links to writers early and mid-season predictions, I’ll just throw those links into the monthly reviews for context. This post is more like a season-long diary of the evolution of these awards; the sections were written in each month as the season progressed.

BaseballMusings maintains a Cy Young tracker stat, which is useful to identify candidates but not really a predictor.

MVP candidates: Trout stretching lead in AL, Jason Kipnis and Nelson Cruz also high in bWAR. Bryce Harper has stretched a massive WAR lead in the NL, Goldschmidt #2. Anthony Rizzo entering the discussion.

Cy Young candidates: Dallas Keuchel and Sonny Gray in the AL, Max Scherzer really standing alone in the NL; closest WAR pitcher in the NL is Aaron Harang and he isn’t likely to keep the pace.

Rookie of the year candidates: Still Travis and Souza in the AL, Kris Bryant and Joc Pederson in the NL are both explosive players and will be hard to catch.

All Star Break

MVP candidates: Probably still Trout and Harper. Goldschmidt is nearly as good but Harper has the narrative.

Cy Young candidates: Dallas Keuchel and Zack Greinke were the All Star starters and may be the leading candidates. Scherzer needs to get some run support; he’s barely above .500.

Rookie of the year candidates: Former Nat Billy Burns is in the bWAR lead, but Carlos Correa likely gets the nod. In the NL, Bryant/Pederson have a commanding lead but Matt Duffy starting to put his name out there, and if the Cubs would just let Kyle Schwarber stay in the majors he might hit his way to the title.

Mid August

MVP candidates: Trout has competition in the form of Josh Donaldson in the AL. Nobody’s close to Harper in the NL, still.

Cy Young candidates: In the NL, Scherzer’s star has faded while LA’s two aces have each had a significant scoreless innings streak and could finish 1-2. Also in the NL; deserving candidates Jacob deGrom, Jake Arrietta and Gerrit Cole. In the AL, it still looks like a dogfight between Gray and Keuchel. But David Price is coming on strong post-trade and Chris Archer should get some top-5 votes.

Rookie of the year candidates: Its the year of the rookie; never before have we seen so many high-impact rookies in the league at once. The AL seems set for Carlos Correa, with guys like Roberto Osuna, Andrew Heaney and Lance McCullers chasing him. The NL has a number of candidates. Bryant and Pederson have gotten the ink, but guys like Matt Duffy, Jung Ho Kang, Noah Snydergaard and Randal Grichuk are also worthy players. Taylor Jungmann, Kyle Schwarber and even Joe Ross are also rans in the race thanks to later callups. Bryant may win thanks to name recognition, but in other years any of these guys would have been candidates.

Managers of the Year: we’re 100 games into the season, early enough to see some trends in the “Award-given-to-the-manager for his team unexpectedly overachieving the most in 2015” award. In the AL, clearly Houston is the surprise team and in the NL the Mets are the surprise team, so we’ll go with A.J. Hinch and Terry Collins.

Comeback Players of the Year: Early candidates include Brett Anderson, Jeff Francoeur, Danny Espinosa and perhaps Matt Harvey. In the AL, I think it has to be Alex Rodriguez or perhaps Prince Fielder. Perhaps Chris Davis comes into the mix too.

September

MVP candidates: In the AL: Donaldson has overtaken Trout thanks to a huge end-of-season push and Trout’s injury. In the NL, the Nats downturn may have opened up the door for both Anthony Rizzo and Andrew McCutchen. That is if we listen to “narrative” about how teams need to be playing meaningful games. Of course that being said, the Nats are playing very meaningful games; they’re trying to chase down a divisional leader so maybe the narrative still works for Harper. But not after a home sweep, when NY beat writers start beating the drum for Cespedes .. .which would be ridiculous since he only played a couple of months in the NL.

Cy Young candidates: In the AL, it probably comes down to Keuchel and Sale, with Price in the mix too thanks to his sterling season for Toronto post-trade. In the NL: Arrietta has had the greatest 2nd half in baseball history; can he overtake Greinke?

Rookie of the year candidates: In the AL: Francisco Lindor making some noise but its still Correa. In the NL, Pederson has gotten benched so it looks like Bryant is the leader, despite Duffy’s better season by WAR.

Managers of the Year: at this point the “surprise” teams are the Mets and suddenly the Rangers. I’ll go with their managers Collins and Bannister. Some in the NL think Maddon and the Cubs are really the surprise team and they’re kind of right … but I maintain the Mets are even more so.

Comeback Players of the Year: I’ll go with Harvey in the NL, Fielder in the AL; nobody’s giving A-Rod an award.

So, neither LCS went as I thought it would and we have the #1 media market in the post-season for the first time since 2009.

Likely Pitching Matchups for Mets-Royals:

Mets-Royals:

Game 1: Harvey vs Volquez

Game 2: deGrom vs Ventura

Game 3: Cueto vs Snydergaard

Game 4: Young vs Matz

Game 5: likely Volquez vs Harvey again

Game 6: likely deGrom vs Ventura again

Game 7: likely Snydergaard vs Cueto again

Discussion

The Mets, by virtue of their quite unexpected sweep, get to reset their rotation and opt (somewhat surprisingly) to lead with Matt Harvey instead of Jacob deGrom. So be it; both guys likely throw twice in the series anyway, so perhaps its a case of getting Harvey a home start in game 5 where he’s likely to be unbeatable. The Royals had to burn Yordano Ventura in the LCS game 6; he won’t be available until WS game 2, so they seem set to lead off with their 2nd most effective guy Edinson Volquez in the opener.

Man for man, the Mets seem to have an overwhelming pitching advantage here. Their 1-2-3 starters each are significant throwers, Volquez doesn’t normally scare anyone, and Johnny Cueto had a 36.00 ERA in the LCS. But the Royals are formidable at the plate: 2nd in the league in BA (by just a point behind the leader), Fewest in the league, by a fairly significant margin, in percentage of strikeouts. Lastly, as a team they’re the 3rd best squad in the game at hitting fastballs. So strength meets strength here.

I can see the Royals working the Mets pitchers, who are all young and may be at the tail end of their effectiveness after a season where almost all of them are pitching far longer than they thought. If the Royals get into the Mets bullpen … are they in trouble? Meanwhile, the Royals’ starters don’t exactly inspire confidence necessarily, but the Royals bullpen is 2nd to none and with so many off-days there’s no reason to think that their main bullpen arms can’t throw in practically every game. With the possible exception of one game in NY, I can see the likes of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Luke Hochevar throwing each night and shutting down the late innings. This could make the difference if this team can get a lead and hold on to it in a close game.

Side note: how funny is baseball; Wade Davis was an awful starter … 5.32 ERA for KC in 24 starts in 2013. and in 2 years out of the pen he’s 17-3 with a 0.97 ERA across 139 IP!! Read that statline again; it wasn’t a typo. 187/43 K/BB in 139 IP over the last two years as a 7th/8th inning guy. Hochevar was the same thing: 5.73 ERA as a starter in 2012, then a 1.92 ERA when he got moved to the pen in 2013. They also have the effective Ryan Madsen (former Phillie) out there, and all of this bullpen success is in spite of losing perhaps their *best* arm in closer Greg Holland to injury earlier this year. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned for our Nats in terms of bullpen construction and what it can do for you.

Can the Mets keep up their momentum after such a long layoff? Will the rest help or hurt their young arms? (probably help frankly).

I have a feeling this is the Royal’s year. I’m not sure how they do it, but I think the home field advantage and the fact that they’ve “been there before” gives them a bit of an advantage. The Mets’ arms are not infallible; they’ll give up runs. Is Daniel Murphy still the second coming of Babe Ruth? Can Lucas Duda get hot again (when he’s on fire, he’s the best hitter in the league, as my fantasy team this year could attest).

Prediction; I like Kansas City in 7. This goes against my better judgement, because I always favor the arms, but when the bats can neutralize the arms … go with the team that seems like its destined to win.

PS: in case you were not aware of the local connection … Kansas City’s GM Dayton Moore was involved with the baseball program at George Mason University, serving as an assistant coach from 1990-1994, right around the same time as some of my baseball colleagues were there (my former teammates who played at Mason would have graduated in the 92-94 range). Now as GM in KC, he’s hired former local player Lonnie Goldberg as his scouting director; we mentioned Goldberg in this space back in Jan 2013 when talking about notable local pro players in my big “All-Virginia team” post, and Goldberg was on those Mason teams in the early 1990s with my former HS teammate Billy Emerson (now the AD at Paul VI in Fairfax). Small world.

(Whoops! forgot to post this on friday. I have a good excuse; it was my kid’s 3rd birthday and we have family in town. I swear I didn’t “cheat” on the Harvey prediction in game 1 from last night … and I still think the Cubs win the series).

Thoughts: Here’s a fun stat: The Mets went 0-7 against Chicago this year. *Winless* in seven games. New York dodged a major bullet by only having Snydergaard have to throw one inning in the NLDS game-5 clincher; when he got up in the third to warmup, that could have blown their NLCS rotation plans (even though he apparently threw 100 pitches between the pen and the game). Now as it stands, even though the Mets havn’t announced anything their rotation for the NLCS lines up so that their three best arms each will get 2 potential starts, with their best arm (deGrom) in line for crucial game 3 and game 7 outings. I see Harvey dominating in game one behind a raucous New York crowd, Arrieta being Arrieta in game 2, then having the strategic fun start. Do you throw Matz in game 4 with Chicago’s heavy lefties or go to the veteran Colon? Can New York steal one in Chicago somehow? Maybe the deGrom game 3?

I dunno; if the Cubs have already shown themselves capable of handling the Mets pitching staff, why would we think anything would change? Something just “feels” different about this Cubs team; they’re a bunch of kids on offense who have no connection to failings of yesteryear and their pitchers all made their bones primarily with others teams. I can see the Mets sneaking one or two games but think this is Chicago’s year. Prediction: Chicago in 6.

As we did with the ALDS, Lets look at the NLDS series with pitching matchups and make some quick predictions:

New York Mets-Los Angeles Dodgers:

Game 1: Kershaw vs deGrom

Game 2: Greinke vs Snydergaard

Game 3: Anderson vs Harvey

Game 4: likely Matz/Colon vs Wood

Game 5: likely Kershaw vs deGrom rematch

Prediction: I like Los Angeles in this series, in 5 games. I can’t see NY winning either game in LA, I see them easily winning Harvey’s start but then the Matz/Colon question for Game 4 could come back to haunt them. Matz hasn’t pitched in 2 weeks and Colon is 42 … but Colon dominated the Dodgers in his sole start against them this year. Meanwhile, Wood has plenty of experience with the Mets lineup from his time in Atlanta but has performed pretty poorly against them this season, so I could see this going game 5 in LA.

Chicago Cubs-St. Louis:

Game 1: Lackey vs Lester

Game 2: Garcia vs Hendricks

Game 3: Wacha vs Arrieta

Game 4: Lynn vs Hammel

Game 5: likely Lackey vs Lester rematch

St Louis won the season series against Chicago … but lost 4 out of 6 in their two September Series. St. Louis is banged up, they have questions about some of their starters, and their all-important catcher will be playing with a split on his thumb. Hmm. Meanwhile. Chicago’s bats are just all-out fearsome; Schwarber-Bryant-Rizzo, each of which can hit the ball 450 feet at any moment. Lester pitched excellently his last time in St. Louis and Lester doesn’t scare anybody, while Garcia could control Chicago’s lefties in game 2. Honestly, I think Chicago gets a split in St. Louis and then takes care of business at home; they’re going to win Arrieta’s game 3 start (StL wastes perhaps their best starter against Arrieta) and then the season is on Lynn’s shoulders. Lynn’s last two Chicago starts: 6ip (total), 9 runs. Prediction: Chicago in 4.

NY Mets: Only the Mets so far have announced their rotation order. Matt Harvey has quelled shut-down-gate talks by finishing out the season and saying he’d take the ball in the NLDS: hard to see him getting beat in his home game 3 start against the Dodgers, especially given his last outing (6ip, 11Ks). deGrom struggled somewhat down the stretch and Snydergaard is only 22; hard to see them beating the seasoned vets Kershaw/Greinke at home. We still don’t know if Matz is going to be healthy for game 4, but the potential LA opponent isn’t exactly scaring anyone, so I could see this go to a game 5 back in LA with Kershaw getting a 2nd divisional start.

LA: We say this every year: Kershaw is the greatest … and he has a 5+ post-season ERA. I’ll never bet against him in the playoffs, especially not after the September he had. Greinke either wins the Cy Young or finishes a close second, and Wood is an effective 3rd starter. This is a tough rotation to handle. But they’re going against probably the 2nd best rotation in the post-season, meaning this could be a tight 5-game set. Or not; watch every game will be 8-7.

StL: They don’t look tough … but this rotation led the Cardinals to a 100 win season in a division with two other 97+ game winners. That’s pretty amazing. Bet against them at your own peril. They were 11-8 versus the Cubs, 10-9 (and got outscored) against the Pirates, so I’m guessing they’re rooting for a Pittsburgh win in the WC play-in game.

NL Wild Card

Chicago Cubs: Arrieta, Hendricks, Haren, Lester (Hammel)

Pittsburgh Pirates: Cole, Liriano, Happ, Burnett (Morton)

Discussion/Prediction: Arrieta has given up 3 runs in the last month … and two of them were in his road start in Pittsburgh on 9/16/15. I could see a similar start from him again in the Wednesday WC game. So what can the Cubs do with Cole? They have also seen him twice in the last month, got shut down at home but got to him on 9/15/15 in Pittsburgh. Tough one to predict but I’m going with your presumptive Cy Young winner to hold serve in Pittsburgh, sending home the 97 win Pirates for the 2nd straight year in the play-in game. Prediction: Cubs win.

If the Cubs win, they’ll be at a huge disadvantage against the Cards. If the Pirates win, Liriano and Happ have been pitching well enough to get them back to their ace quickly and make a series of it.

AL Divisional Winners

Toronto: Price, Estrada, Buehrle, Dickey/Stroman

Kansas City: Cueto, Ventura, Volquez, Young (Medlen)

Texas: Hamels, Gallardo, Holland, Perez/Lewis

Discussion:

Toronto is setup for the playoffs and will get Price twice. The back-end of their rotation doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in a playoff series, but Toronto isn’t about top-notch pitching. They hope to bash their way to the title and just may do it. Would you roll the dice and sit Dickey for the 4th spot in favor of Stroman and his live arm? Do you insult the veteran Buehrle and leave him off your playoff roster (probably not).

Kansas City: blew Cueto in an attempt to keep home field and were successful, so Ventura likely gets two NLDS starts. Nationals re-tread Young suddenly looks like the #4 starter for a WS contender. Who would have thought that?

Texas burned Hamels just to get to the playoffs; they’ll struggle to compete against two David Price home starts. Who is their #4 in the playoffs? Will Toronto average 6 runs a game against this staff? Could be a short-post season run for the Rangers; no judgement here; they’ve done fantastically just to get into the playoffs given the number of rotation injuries and their poor start.

AL Wild Card

Houston: Keuchel, McHugh, McCullers, Kazmir/Fiers

New York Yankees: Tanaka, Severino, Pineda, Nova (Sabathia)

Discussion/Prediction: well, it doesn’t look good for the Yankees; Keuchel is scheduled to start and has thrown twice against New York this year: he threw a 6-hit shutout with 12 Ks against them in June and then threw 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball in late August. He’s your shoe-in Cy Young Winner and seems likely to pitch the Astros into the divisional series. New York counters with Tanaka; in his sole appearance vs Houston he got lit up (5ip, 6runs) and the Yankees seem like they’re struggling just to field a lineup at season’s end. They get the home game but likely go out a loser to end their season. And if the Yankees somehow won, they’d have thrown their best pitcher … and one of the presumptive rotation members just checked himself into Alcohol Rehab. Prediction: Astros Win.

Interesting collection of guys with Washington ties featuring prominently in the 2015 playoffs.

Dan Haren was nearly released mid-season because he was so bad in Washington 2 years ago, now he’s the #3 starter on a 97 win team.

Marco Estrada was waived by the Nats after a long and uninspiring minor league career; now he’s the #2 starter for the AL favorite?

Chris Young played a whole season for Syracuse in 2013, working his way back from an injury. When he didn’t make the 2014 roster he signed with Seattle and has been pretty effective since.

Marcus Stroman was an 18th round pick out of HS by the Nats; he was listed as a SS (he’s only 5’8″) but went to Duke, became a power arm and was a 1st round pick by the Blue Jays 3 years later.

Colby Lewis signed on with the Nats back in the bad years, failing to make the team out of Spring Training in 2007. He hooked on with Oakland, playing most of the year in Sacramento before signing a 2-year gig in Japan.

If the Nats want October baseball, they may want to think about how to beat this guy. Photo: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

In the comment thread of the last post, I said something along the lines of “call me when the Nats sweep Atlanta.”

Well, they just did that. They did what they were supposed to do, had some luck, got some clutch hitting (thanks Matt den Dekker) and swept Atlanta at home. They picked up 2 games on the Mets, who sputtered in Miami.

… and then they go and drop the ONE “sure thing” match-up in this series. Our “Ace” Max Scherzer craps the bed yet again (He now has a 4.52 ERA in the 14 starts since his no-hitter/one-hitters in June) versus the Mets’ #5 starter Jon Niese. After knocking out said #5 starter in the 4th and after scoring 5 runs, the Nats lose again.

Coincidentally, the Nats have now dropped three games 8-5 in the last week, after holding the lead in all three. Their record on the season when they score 5 or more runs: 45-13 … but they’re just 8-10 when scoring exactly 5 runs. That’s crazy.

By way of comparison, in 2014 when they scored exactly 5 runs, they were 13-1. In 2014 when they scored 5 or more runs, they were 57-6. You want to know why this team is hovering near .500 in September versus running away with the division like they did last year? There’s a big reason. 13-1 versus 8-10 in games they should be winning; that’s 9 games in the loss column. Heck, in 2014 when they scored *four* or more runs they were nearly unbeatable, let alone 5 runs. This year when they score 4 or 5 runs they’re a .500 team (18-17). That’s an indictment of the starters *and* the bullpen, two areas that were supposed to be locked down this year.

Can this team beat Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom in the next two nights to salvage this series? They have their work cut out for them;

In 4 starts against Washington this year Harvey is 2-1 with a 0.98 ERA, having given up just 18 hits in 27 innings.

In 4 starts against Washington this year, deGrom is 1-2 with a 3.47 ERA, having given up 20 hits in 23.1 innings.

Not out of the realm of possible, given the way they’re scoring runs (they’ve scored 5 or more runs in 9 of their last 10 games). But the Nats starters need to do some work. We need our trio of “Aces” to do more than what Scherzer did yesterday.

ps: Bryce Harper is right; why the F are fans leaving in the 7th on a holiday weekend day game?? It isn’t like its a tuesday night on a school night and you’ve got to get the kids to bed. No excuse. I’d be pissed too.

At least half of these guys being what i’d call an “Ace” in this league, and a handful more that are easily #2’s.

That’s just a brutal stretch. By my estimates, I had the Nats with a favorable pitching match-up just three times in their first 16 games back: Zimmermann over Bolsinger (a win), Scherzer over Locke (a bad loss), and Scherzer over Haren (a 1-0 squeaker win). Certainly I did not have us with a favorable matchup in any of the 3 games this weekend, and it was little surprise to me to see us get swept. I thought we’d be lucky to be at .500 for these 16 games and with some bad luck they ended up this stretch 6-10.

Now here’s the good news. We should get pretty healthy in the next week or so. We face Arizona at home with four pitching matchups that favor Washington. Then Colorado comes to town and are throwing a couple of guys that I’ve frankly never even heard of (Yohan Flande and Eddie Butler). So a week from now we may be on a 6-1 or 5-2 streak and be back in happy town.

The Nats have been very streaky this year. With apologies to “arbitrary endpoint” haters, you can divide the season into five neat streaks:

Start Date

End Date

Wins during Streak

Losses during streak

Record at end of Streak

GB or GA in Division

Key moments starting/ending streak

4/6/2015

4/27/2015

7

13

7-13

-8 GB

Opening day instability of offense leads to sputtering start.

4/28/2015

5/27/2015

21

6

28-19

+1.5 GA

Unbelievable 13-12 win in Atlanta on 4/28 ends 7-13 start to season and kicks off a 21-6 run

And now here we stand, on 8/3/15, even up with the Mets for the division and just a handful of games over .500. Inarguably the Mets made great moves at the trade deadline. But remember, they’ll face the same post-TJ decision on Harvey that the Nats did with Strasburg in 2012. And Snydergaard’s max IP was 133 last year; He’s already at that for 2015 and its just the beginning of August. Both these guys may be looking at regression or outright damage as they rocket past conservative workloads for 2015. Will that work to the Nats’ favor?

I still like the Nats offensive capabilities once they’re fully healthy. Its like getting players at the trade deadline, only you don’t have to bet the farm for them. Will they hold up through the end of the season? Will Strasburg return and give us the same level of pitching that Joe Ross has in his absence? Lets hope so.